REFLECTION ON CRITICAL LITERACY

First of all, I would say that Critical Literacy is not a really complicated subject as there are many others difficult subject. The thing that we should cope with is just the skills of readings. In this subject, there a lot of readings that we have to understand and know how to find thesis statement in order to get the overall views of that reading. For this subject, we have the four hours class in a week which 2 hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and an hour in the evening. Honestly, I prefer the morning class than the other times. For the 4E class, Madam Nor Ruba’yah as well known as ‘Mdm Yaya’ was handled this subject. How can I describe her? From the bottom of my heart, sincerely I said that she was a really nice lecturer. Everybody likes her as she always used a good teaching skills and the most important thing is that she will always smile in her class. I conclude that, I really enjoy learning Critical Literacy even though I have to complete so many tasks in this subject… =)

REFLECTION ON DRUGS AND GUNS

The article entitled ‘Drugs and Guns’ which written by Peter Hawthorne was discussed about the government of South Africa who were in difficulties on making decision whether to choose guns for the military used or to safe people’s life from AIDS. From the reading, I feet poor for the citizens who were easily lost their life because of AIDS. As we all know Africa was not such develop in economic so they had limitation in spending budget to the country. But, what I felt unsatisfied was when I saw the picture of Thabo Mbeki who was such luxurious life while the citizens were struggled for their living outside there. From my point of view, the government should focus on AIDS problems first rather than guns because if the government did not recover the problems, it will become worst. We should remember that citizens reflect an image of a country. The social ills gave the bad reputation and perception of that country which people might say that they were not well educated. Then after that the government should think the other ways to find the budget for the guns.

DIETING

DIETING


TOPIC:-

The article focuses on the current issues where everyone is really excited on losing weight using variety of products without realize the side effects of it. Besides, it also tell us about the different kind of diet which are practiced by the famous person or celebrities.

CONTENT:-

The article covers a wide range of current issues relating to the phenomenon of weight control which are consisting of physical and mental health. In addition, it covers about the role of commercial providers towards weight loss products. The research studies by the specialist based on up-to-date information also included in the article.

SOURCE:-

The article comes from the article entitled ‘The complete guide to self improvement’ by Martin Seligman.

AUDIENCE:-

The article is written for everyone especially for the readers who are really concern about their health Besides, it also for the people who are suffer from social or medical defiance which give circumstances on someone’s life.

RHETORICAL FUNCTION:-

The article is designed to inform the readers about the dangers and pitfalls of commercially available weight loss programs. In the other hand, the author wants to warn the readers on do not easily believe the promises that made by commercially- driven product providers. Besides, he also pains to reassure them that their current weight is probably ideal.

PURPOSE:-

The article aims to simultaneously inform, warn and reassure people who are concerned about their weight, the aim set up to avoid people used expensive weight products and to make them appreciate their current weight.






PERSPECTIVE:-

The stance taken in the article is probably critical of both commercial weight loss products and of the medical views which support them. The readers might have their own perspective after reading the article maybe some of them will realize it and maybe some of them just ignore it.

POSITIONING:-

The article describes as if weight loss as a matter of commercial gain rather than as medical advantage. The author takes his position as the medium to deliver the knowledge about the real effects of dieting.

IMPACT:-

The effect on the article is likely to be two-fold. Firstly, it may issue some pervasive myths about ideal weight which attract commercial interests. Besides, it will make the readers realize it is nothing wrong with their current weight.

VISUAL LITERACY:-

The visual aspects of the text are significant because it will influenced the readers and get their attention to read the article further.

Invasion of the Baby Snatchers

Invasion of the Baby Snatchers

TOPIC:-
The article focuses on the missing children and child abductions. In addition it tells about irresponsible adult who neglected and abondoned their children. In the other hand, the media attention seems to be too concern about the issue but then neglected the other issue which concerning the lost children.

CONTENT:-
The article covers about the victims of child abductions at the beginning. For example in the U.S the case of kidnapping and murder at Dannielle Van Dam in San Diego, California. The started to show the statistics on child abductions and then the writer questioned on why this kind of crimes happened and how far the kids safety nowadays?

SOURCE:-
The article comes from the ‘TIME’ on August 26, 2002 where it is written by Walter Kirn. This article had been put on the ‘viewpoint’ space.

AUDIENCE:-
The article is written for the public especially for the parents. Besides, it also can be read by teenagers. Therefore, they will know the current issue and be aware with their environment.

RHETORICAL FUNCTION:-
The article is designed to let the readers know the current issue that occured there. Besides, the writer gives some advise to the public. Further, the writer try to warn the readers about the children who are in danger path. Lastly, the writer wants to explain of why the children are easily exposed to that situation.

PURPOSE:-
The article aims to let the readers realize the reality of the crimes which are dramatically increasing day by day. In addition, the article object the reader to be more aware towards this case. Perhaps, they will take a good ation in the future in order to avoid this kind of crimes happened to their beloved family members or friends.

PERSPECTIVE:-
The stance taken in this article is the writer directly showed the real condition of kids safety over there. Besides, the writer wrote something that is totally right and can be accepted by the readers. In addition, the writer criticise the adults who neglect ed the kids. Lastly, the writer condemn the people who did the such crimes.

POSITIONING:-
The article describes as the writer can encourage the readers to be cooperate due to their target to decrease the chance of this crime to be happened. Besides, the writer take the position as the medium that deliver information to the people about the current issues. The writer used the formal language where it can be easily understood. Moreover, the writer questioned that need them to think. For example, ‘So many shocking stories, so suddenly- a genuine crime wave or media hysteria?’.

IMPACT:-
The effect on the readers is likely to be affective as if the readers take serious on that issue or else it will be in the opposite way if the readers have the negative thoughts. Besides, there will also be a good impact if the readers have desire to protect children.

VISUAL LITERACY:-
The visual aspects of the text are significant because it can attract the readers to read the article. As we can see, there is also the picture of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman who are the victims. This, for sure will make the readers wonder what is the story behind the picture. The title which is bolded play its role in order to catch reader’s attention.

Australia's Methadone Mess

READING 5.1

The article of ‘Australia’s Methadone Mess’ which was published on May 1998 actually contain about the serious heroin addicts who used Methadone in order to replace heroin. The objective of used Methadone is for help addicts to avoid injecting illegal drugs which the drug encourage them to do crime because of the high cost to fund their escalating habit. Besides, in this article they also explained about the effect of Methadone itself towards the addicts. In addition, there are also some cases of serious addicts took part in the article as example. As conclusion, this article is all about Methadone which is beneficial towards the addicts if they are follow the right dosage. But if they misused it, Methadone will bring them to death.

READING 5.3 & 5.4

READING 5.3

This chapter explained about the types of exposition which can be identified in writing skills. There are three types of exposition which are Hortatory Exposition, Reasoning in Exposition and Personality in Exposition. The most effective way of distinguishing these three exposition are by dig the thesis and look more closely of what being argued for. Actually, thesis is the element of an exposition. Moreover, this chapter tells us that exposition is highly methaporical, impersonal and has tendency to reason within rather than between clauses.

READING 5.4

Reading 5.4 discussed about metaphor which is inextricebly bound up with the process of classification from which out discussion began. Based on my reading, the thing that i can understand is metaphor shows on our knowledge of the pysical world of concrete objects and spatial relationships in order to structure a great variety of experimental domains. As a conclusion, I can sais that the process of metaphor clearly as important implications for our consideration of the relationship between language and ideology, as the ‘nuke speak’. That’s all.

Critical Literacy

READING 4.1

In this article they argue about the body language that speaks to muggers where I think it is acceptable based on the evidence that showed in that article. Actually, the evidence had been proved by researchers. For example, the researchers analyze that each person’s use 26 movements that form basic components in Labanalysis, a common system for describing and notating movement. As a conclusion, I agree with this issue where muggers can easily point their victims by looking their movements.


READING 4.3

This topic which is entitled ‘What is The Evidence’ tells us about how important is the evidence to prove anything that had been argued. From the article I can say that evidence is the facts, signs and object that make you believe that something is true. For example the information that is used in the court about any cases. Usually testimonial evidence is more trustworthy rather than circumstantial evidence. As a conclusion, nowadays everything needs to be approval as to get someone’s trustiness.


READING 4.4

In this reading 4.4, it explained about statistics where it is normally used in many fields such as by government, business, research worker and literacy field. Statistic has two meaning as in plural it refers to information about phenomenon or activity which is expressed in numerical form while in singular sense; it is used in the art and science of collecting, interpreting numerical data and so on. As a conclusion I can described that statistic is really important but we have to remember that not all of the result is correct.


READING 4.5

This is quite an interesting topic which entitled ‘Crooked and Fallacious Thinking’. In this topic what I can cope is it tells about the medium or maybe can be called as transfer devise where it is used to attract people. People also make conclusion at the 1st sight where it will evaluate it on their expectations. Besides it also can be conclude as complicated thinking where the thinkers the words to make it difficult to understand and this may lead to misunderstanding. That’s all.

Three blogs

READING 3.1

This article entitled ‘Please, let me go to your school’ is about one girl who do not have abilities like a normal children. She wants to go to a normal school but at the end her request was rejected by the higher authority of that school. That girl, as a Scarlett can be described as a victim. Her mother plays a role as the one who protest because her daughter was not allowed to go to that school. Actually I think the writer was bias as she just wrote the things that she heard from one party. How about the school side? Maybe they have very concrete reasons of why this thing happened. The writer as the main position to deliver the exact events that happened should be fair and really careful with any words that she wrote. As a conclusion, positioning is the important element to influence the readers.


READING 3.3

This article which entitled ‘A sketch a possible linguistic approach to Critical Literacy’ is about problematic the texts as ideological positioning and open up space for a number of critical readings which provided the basis of informed debate, analysis and critique. A Sketch of a possible linguistic perspective is a linguistic perspective. It was that include 5 elements. There are field, genre, mode, tenor and ideology. All this 5 elements are realized through the specific language choices in text. In addition, it tells us how language works are written and how it will be applied in critically literate. As a conclusion, having a nation of the text analysts’ is a cure for all social ills.


READING 3.4

In reading 3.4 which is under ‘Speech and Speakers: The formation of individuals in discourse and genre’. There are 3 subtopics in this main topic which are Discourse and Readers, Genre and Reading Position and Language and Language Users. Speech and speaker is the formation of individuals in discourse and genre. Serious speech and conversation or piece of writing can be defined as discourse and readers. Genre and reading position are constructing by discourse. The third subtopic is language and language users where it explains about all people in this world are perfect as a speaker if they have an experience. Not because they born as a perfect speaker. That’s all what can I say about this topic.

Battling The Bullies

REAADING 2.1

Based on the article ‘Battling the bullies’ in the reading 2.1, I can see that the way the writer arrange her sentence and describe the story is quite bias. Why I said so? It is because the writer showed her sympathy on what was happened towards Mary Watson’s son. Actually, it is right if the writer felt that way but can’t her ever think about the one who did the bully? From my opinion, the writer should dig out why that particular person did it in order to solve this problem? In this article we can see that the writer criticize the bully. Maybe for the writer the bullies are the bad people but I think they maybe have inner problem which we are all do not know what was it. So, as a conclusion, I’m glad if the writer helps them too.

Journal 2

Based on my understanding from the Reading 2.2 which is ‘Language, Perspective & Ideology’, I can say that the language that we used to describe something will affect the readers where they will make their own perspective towards that statement. I t means perspective is mediated through textual structures and textual processes and those who control the production of text control is the operation of ideology. Language is a human speech, perspective can be described as someone’s thoughts and ideology is a set of beliefs and principles. So, I conclude that everyone have different perspective and ideology based on one’s understanding on language development in any statement that had been written.


In the topic of ‘Text and Textualities’, I can explain that text is a combination of signs that have various meaning for different group of people. What is sign? Signs can be described as a result of its contrast to other meaning. Texts are socially constructed to have certain meaning where it combines both pictures and carries many meaning. It also influences understanding of the reading on the text. As a conclusion, I can say that, readers can choose to believe or not to believe of what they have read.

Critical Lliteracy - Unit 1

The first thing that I’ve learnt from ‘Critical Literacy’ subject is about the way of approaching a text critically. In this subject, I need to be able ‘frame’ a text. There are 10 elements all together. First and foremost, I have to analyze the topic by look at the picture and headline then I just read whatever that spring in my mind. Other elements like content, source, audience and visual literacy are quite easy as I simply can do it. I also have to identify and understand about rhetorical function, purpose, perspective, positioning and impact. These 5 elements are quite difficult because I should have the ability of thinking, analyzing, understanding and applying the information that I’ve read. In the way to complete the task that had been given by my lecturer, I read the notes more than 3 times. But then, I still confuse with some of the elements. Actually, I never used the some of the elements before. I’m glad to learn something new at least I got some knowledge from it. So perhaps, I will cope with these 10 elements.

In the reading 1.1 I’ve learnt about ‘Stories and Facts’ which contains recounts, report writing and factual writing. Based on my understanding, stories are about the briefing of any events that happened and it will be edit by other parties to be a story. Fact is something that is true, accurate and clear. It cannot be edited or created by other parties. From this reading part, it also gives an explanation about the procedure of writing, creativity and imagination in factual writing and developing report writing. I can understand this chapter, it just there is a few points that I can’t really cope with it. But I think it is good for me as I am taking Diploma in English Communication to learn about it.

Do you know what is ‘Rules and Regulations’? Actually these words are familiar with us as we can see the words everywhere such as university, bank, shopping complex and more. Rules and regulations are needed in our daily life as it will guide us and control our behavior to be disciplined and obeyed community. So that we will live in peace and harmony if people just follow the rules and regulations. Rules actually can be created by any small parties while regulations are made by high authority. Actually, my group is covered this topic during the presentation and we are do not fully understand with this topic. But, we have given our best on that presentation even it seemed like we are not prepared. So as a conclusion, rules and regulations are really important to manage people behavior.